


Strength

by atamascolily



Series: A Grief Observed [3]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, Star Wars Legends: New Republic Era - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Character Death, Dathomir, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Hapes! Hapes! Hapes!, One Shot, Post-Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Skywalker Family Feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-05
Updated: 2018-04-05
Packaged: 2019-04-18 19:41:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14220369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/atamascolily/pseuds/atamascolily
Summary: After Han's unexpected death in the Battle of Endor, Luke helps Leia cope with her grief even as he struggles with his own. Just as life in the fledgling New Republic is settling down, a delegation from the Hapes Consortium arrives...





	Strength

**Author's Note:**

> So this started out as a usual what-if-a-main-character-died angstfest, and then the Hapans showed up. If you ever wondered how _The Courtship of Princess Leia_ might have turned out if Han wasn't in the picture, here's my answer. 
> 
> Han's line to Leia about being as cold as Hoth is from a deleted scene in _Empire Strikes Back_ , if you're curious.

Luke doesn't need the Force to know that something is wrong when he spies Leia on his return to the Ewok village. He can see the way her shoulders curve, the watchfulness in her eyes, the haunted expression that she tries and fails to hide as various Ewoks reach out to her with joyful shouts. She accepts their greetings, bends down to shake their hands and laugh, but the gestures ring false to him. Leia is an accomplished diplomat, good at covering her emotions, but Luke knows her too well now to be fooled by celebratory display she puts on for the world. 

She stands up, looks out into the darkness, sees him coming towards her on the log-rope bridge, and rushes to embrace him. For a moment, he hopes that her agitation will lift, that she was waiting for him to return, uncertain whether he was dead or alive, but lingering in hope that his choice to surrender to Darth Vader wasn't a suicide mission after all. But as her arms tighten around him, and she buries her face in his shoulder, she shakes and doesn't stop. There is no relief when she finally lifts her gaze to meet his. 

Luke can only imagine one thing terrible enough to set Leia so off-balance. 

"Han," he said softly, not wanting to spook her, though he can feel her tense against him as he says the words. "Where's Han?" 

She buries her face back in his shoulder and sobs. 

No one is paying any attention to them amidst the celebratory chaos. The wooden landing shudders as the Ewoks shout and stamp in time to drums and flutes, re-enacting their victories for each other in tortured gestures that always end in collapse on the ground and hilarious laughter. Wedge and his fellow pilots are mingling awkwardly with their furry allies, though the local homebrew is _very_ popular with Alliance personnel, who knock back shot after shot in a manner that suggests an epidemic of hangovers come the dawn. Artoo is projecting a psychedelic light show that has all the younger Ewoks tantalized, and even Threepio appears to be enjoying his recent promotion to local deity in his clumsy, yet endearing, way. 

Luke hasn't slept since he left the Ewok village the previous evening. Since then, he's been an Imperial prisoner, tortured physically and emotionally by the Emperor of the galaxy, fought for his life against a Sith Lord, watched his long-lost father die before his eyes, and escaped from the Death Star seconds before it exploded under the Rebel assault. He reeks of sweat and smoke from the funeral pyre he made alone in the woods, so hot it would burn through Darth Vader's duraplast armor, and cleanse the last traces of that being from the universe. He's twenty-four Standard years old, but he feels ancient as Yoda now, deep in his bones. 

Luke wants to fall apart himself, but instead he props Leia up without complaint, just like she's done so many times for him. He owes her so much and here's a chance to pay her back now - though this is a form of repayment he never would have chosen for her. 

It ought to be the three of them embracing each other, shouting and laughing, just like it was four years ago with the first Death Star. They've all been through so much together, the three of them, but they'd always made it through until now. He never expected anything like _this_. Not now, so close to the end. 

When they departed for this mission to Endor, Luke had dismissed Han's premonition that he would never see the _Millennium Falcon_ again. Han had never shown any aptitude for the Force, yet somehow he glimpsed what Luke had missed: that this would be his final run. Han had made an entire career out of being lucky, but that luck had run out here for good. 

The news catches Luke off guard, leaving him raw and vulnerable on the inside. Han has been with him since the very beginning, since the day they blasted out of Mos Eisley with Imperial ships hot on their trail. Han's his best friend, Han's saved his life so many times--Luke can't imagine the galaxy without him. It hurts to try. 

And as bad as it is for Luke, he knows it's ten times worse for Leia. 

Luke gets the story out of her eventually, in between the tears. He doesn't push her, doesn't rush her, just lets her tell the story in her own way. If Han is already gone, there's no point in haste now. 

Their first assault against the shield generator failed, Leia recounts - as the Emperor had bragged to Luke, it was all a trap to lure the Rebel fleet to its doom. Then the Ewoks attacked, allowing the strike team to break free of their captors. In the chaos, Leia and Han managed to re-enter the facility and set thermal detonators inside. When Imperial snipers started shooting at them from inside the base, Han had ordered Leia out and covered her retreat. 

Those few extra seconds had cost him his life. 

The explosion had taken out both the generator and its surroundings. Leia herself had just barely managed to get clear before the explosion, dodging the sharpnel by burying herself in the shrubbery. Han, a few seconds behind her, hadn't had a chance. 

"He was a hero," Leia sobs over and over again, as if she can't quite believe it. "We won because of him. We wouldn't have been able to get those doors open and those charges planted without him. And he--he insisted on being the last one out--told me to go ahead and _go_ \--" 

Luke doesn't say much through all of this, partly because he's so goddamn tired, and partly because he doesn't know what to say. He isn't sure there _is_ anything he can say that will help her now, to be honest. 

He looks over his shoulder. The ghosts of his mentors are watching, smiling -- and then there's his father right at their side. This should be a joyful moment, but the victory is doubly bittersweet. He's already lost so many people he loved on this journey--he's already buried his father today. Now he has to bury Han, too? 

Eventually, the flood of tears abates, and Leia gathers herself together. "Chewie and Lando are getting drunk," she says at last, leading him over to one of the huts. 

Chewie is curled up in a corner, moaning unintelligibly, and Lando is sprawled out beside him, royally drunk and toasting to Han's memory when Luke and Leia walk in. He waves at them in greeting, and gestures for them to sit down nearby. "Come on in, and help yourselves," he says, gesturing to the barrel of redberry wine in the corner. "There's plenty of booze for everyone." 

A parade of Ewoks pop in, wanting to know why their new friends aren't dancing. Leia keeps pushing them off, but they don't get the hint. Eventually Luke convinces Threepio to tell them to leave the humans alone lest the wrath of god descend upon them, and the interruptions cease entirely after that. 

They tell stories about Han, long into the night. Lando translating for Luke and Leia's benefit, since they're still not as good at understanding Shryiiwook as they'd like and Chewie isn't in the mood to speak slowly and clearly. 

Leia drinks more alchohol than Luke has ever seen her, but the only signs she's drunk are her bitterness and the occasional slurred word. 

"We should have left him with Jabba," she says over and over again. "At least then he'd still be alive." 

"Frozen and safe is not the same as living," Luke counters calmly, every single time. "Han was responsible for his own choices, and you can't take that on yourself." 

He knows what she's doing, and he doesn't blame her for it - he just doesn't want it to escalate any further. She's in that freewheeling stage where rage is power, and he wants to make sure that it burns through and passes quickly, rather than festering. Anger, fear, hatred - the dark side of the Force are they. 

He doesn't want his sister to fall the way their father did. There's been too much blood and death and violence already, so many gone forever. He can't bear the thought of losing her, too. 

She knows, of course. She always does. She's always been the strong one, Alderaanian pacifism married to fierce practicality, but that doesn't mean she doesn't need support. Leia is a survivor, but losing Han on top of the torture and the genocide she's endured might be what pushes her over the edge now. So he watches her carefully, gently correcting her when she pushes too far, offering what little comfort he can. 

Leia says she would rather have a live scoundrel than a dead hero. But it's too late to tell Han that now and, anyway, he probably wouldn't have listened. 

***

Standing next to Leia at Han's funeral pyre the next day, in the midst of Chewbacca's interminable rendition of a sacred Wookiee death anthem, Luke makes the mistake of telling her he's seen their father's ghost. 

She stiffens, hunching back like a krayt dragon about to strike. "Is he watching us now?" 

Luke looks over her shoulder to where the ghost of Anakin Skywalker is hovering, and Leia turns to follow his gaze. Her expression rockets from neutral to enraged in miliseconds, as all her pain and anger zero in on the convenient target before her. 

"STAY AWAY FROM ME, YOU BASTARD!" she shrieks, followed by complex series of Low Alderaanian insults and gestures that do not require Threepio to translate. "STAY AWAY, YOU HEAR ME, STAY AWAY--" 

Luke grimaces, but says nothing. No one can hear anything over Chewbacca, anyway, and everyone else will think it's grief over Han. He loves his father fiercely, but the man has a lot to answer for. Whatever peace Leia makes with him - or doesn't - is her own business, not his. 

And after all that Vader put her through, Luke can't say her reaction surprises him. 

Luke _is_ surprised, however, when his conciliatory hand on her shoulder earns him a fist in the jaw.

Luke goes down _hard_ , one hand to his bleeding mouth, the other instinctively to his lightsaber, but he forces himself to ignore his combat reflexes and offer no resistance to her attacks. Leia's lashing out, but Luke's not the one who has her spitting mad - it's rage at Vader, Han, herself, all jumbled and confused and seeking an outlet, any outlet, to break free. He can see Lando approaching in concern, and then Chewie notices something is wrong and breaks off the anthem--and things spiral out of hand very, very quickly. 

"This is all your _fault,_ " Leia screams through the tumult at their deceased father, the ghost that no one but the two remaining Skywalkers can see. " _Your fault!_ " 

There are so many causes and conditions that led to this moment it seems almost unfair to blame Anakin Skywalker for everything, but Luke can't deny his sister has a point.

***

"'S all right," Lando says an hour later, holding the gelpack over his left eye, where a dark bruise is blossoming near his temple. "Han did say he always wanted a knock-down, drag-out brawl at his funeral, after all." 

Leia flushed. "It was not a brawl," she says stubbornly, though Lando's eye and the red swollen patches along Luke's face and arms suggest otherwise. "I _did_ knock Luke down, though," she admits after a pause. "Sorry about that." 

"It's not the worst thing that's happened this week," Luke says. He intends the words to be a comfort before realizing they're not, and curses himself twice over for a fool as her face crumples. 

"Leia--" Luke calls as she walks away, but she chokes through her sobs that she wants to be alone, and he lets her go. 

There are some things that not even a Jedi can fix. 

***

Leia pulls herself together for the mop-up action later that day, but it costs her. The moment of triumph she's worked for all her life has come, and she tries her damndest not to let her private grief eclipse it. She belongs to the people and she knows it. Mostly, she succeeds. Luke knows her well enough not to be fooled. 

When the message drone from Bakura comes, begging for Imperial assistance against an unknown alien menace, Leia doesn't hesitate. "We're going in," she says firmly. 

"Going?" Lando repeats. 

"We couldn't save Han," she says. "But there is still a hell of a lot of work to do, and I intend to do as much as I can." Her lips curve in the barest hint of a smile. "Leave it to General Solo to leave us with a real mess on our hands." 

They all laugh, even Chewie and the tension between them breaks, just a little. 

Chewie and Lando pilot the _Falcon_ to Bakura, where Leia charms the Imperial garrison into a ceasefire, and Luke falls hard for an attractive local politician whose religion considers the Jedi to be abominations. Their tentative attempts at a relationship are awkward and don't end well. Fortunately, there's a big space battle to distract him from his heartbreak, and Lando and Chewie get to be the heroes again, and all of them are too busy trying not to get killed to think too much about Han. 

It isn't until several weeks after their return from Bakura that Leia realizes she's pregnant.

***

"What am I going to _do_?" she moans, collapsing into her chair on the _Falcon_. 

"It's fine, Leia, it's going to be fine. I'm here for you, Chewie and Lando are here for you, we're you're family, we'll help you--" 

He isn't sure she's going to listen to him, but what she says next stuns him. It's not the news she's carrying twins that bothers her at all. 

"Luke, I can't feel anything at all right now, and it scares me. Han said I was so icy and cold when he met me--like the surface of Hoth--and I can feel it creeping up on me now, more and more every day. I don't want to go back to that!" 

"You don't have to, Leia." 

"But it hurts--" 

He wants to say he can make it better, but he can't. He can only comfort her by being, not by doing. This much he's learned as a Jedi. He sits with her and holds her until she calms. 

It's not enough, but it's all he can do. 

Jacen and Jaina are born nine months after Endor, with Leia's childhood friend Winter and Chewie as proud and protective caretakers when Leia is busy with politics. Luke pitches in when his schedule allows, and more often after he resigns his military commission and becomes a private citizen again. 

Lando and Chewie lead the liberation of Kashyyk and Chewie sees his Wookiee family for the first time in over a decade. It's a long, hard campaign after that, but two years after Endor, the fledgling New Republic captures Coruscant and declares it the new capital. There are still renmnants of the Empire to battle on the fringes, and warlords and pirates squabbling for power on the fringes (not to mentionsome those troublesome Hutts), but things are quieter after that. 

By this point, Leia had adapted to juggling the needs of her children with those of the New Republic, both of whom accept Luke, Lando, Chewie and Winter as part of their family without question. Every year on the anniversary of Han's death, they throw a party to celebrate his life, with lots of drinks and a huge game of sabacc. Leia shows the twins fuzzy holos of their father, which they quietly absorb with wide eyes. 

Just when life is settling down, the delegates from the Hapes Consortium arrive. 

***

"He wants to marry me," she says bluntly as soon as Luke walks in the room. "To cement an alliance between Hapes and the New Republic. Hapes is a strict matriarchy, as well as an absolute monarchy - only women can inherit. Isolder is the Crown Prince, but I would be sole ruler of everything when his mother died or retired." 

"Are you considering it?" 

"I--" She flushes. "I still love Han," she says quietly, staring down at the ground. "But he's gone now. Isolder is very charming, but I still don't know him very well--" 

"Love can come out of diplomatic alliances, you know," Luke points out, though he finds the whole concept of political marriage bizarre and foreign. 

"I just feel I'd be---betraying Han by doing this."

"Loving Isolder doesn't erase what you had with Han," Luke said. "I think Han would want you to do what makes you happy." 

"I don't _know_ what makes me happy anymore, Luke. Some things are easy. Jacen. Jaina. You. Winter. Chewie. Outside of that? Not so much." 

"So don't do it. Just be friends with Isolder, or his government, whatever works. Or tell him you're in mourning. Widowed. Not yet ready to wed again. He ought to respect that. If he doesn't, he's not worth getting involved with, no matter how many Hapan battle cruisers are on the table." 

"Han and I weren't married." 

"You were married in spirit," Luke said. "That's the only ceremony that counts." 

Marriages weren't fancy on Tatooine - a young couple, a magistrate, a handful of witnesses and a bottle of hooch were all you needed. (The hooch wasn't required, but it was tradition, and sometimes it was a necessary bribe to round up sufficient witnesses, particularly in the seedier parts of Mos Eisley.) It wasn't at all like on Alderaan, he'd gathered, where fancy, formal ceremonies were a legal, as well as cultural, necessity, particularly for the upper class. 

Leia had been raised as a princess, in full regal splendor. Now the Hapans, in the form of Isolder, were offering something very much like it back to her again. Not Alderaan, exactly, but perhaps--close enough.

 _She's sacrificed so much for the rebellion - home, family, love. Is it too much to ask for wealth and happiness, all wrapped up in one handsome package?_

"Well, I'm going to Hapes as Isolder's guest," she says at last. "We'll see how it goes. I don't have to make a decision just yet." 

***

Leia's trip goes well enough at first - a formal audience with Isolder's mother, Ta'a Chume, a tour of the Fountain Palace, an endless array of state dinners. But after two weeks, she's kidnapped by forces unknown - an apparent victim of the vast and deadly sea of Hapan intrigue. 

Of course, both the New Republic and the Hapan governments hush it up. Luke only finds out when a frantic holo from Isolder appears in his inbox. "Leia is missing. You have to help me find her!" 

So Luke agrees to go with Isolder in his personal battle cruiser and track her down. Luke reaches out with the Force, while Isolder sends out the best agents in his private intelligence corps to look for leads. Weeks pass, and the trail grows cold, but neither one wants to admit defeat, so they keep going. 

During those long, grim days, Luke and Isolder get to know each other, exchanging stories and ancedotes from their own lives. Luke tells stories of the Jedi, of his farming days on Tatooine, and his unexpected re-union with his sister (though he skips over their connections to Vader).

Isolder shares his private doubts about the Hapan government, his frustrations with the position of Crown Prince, his wish to abandon it all for adventures unknown. He grieves over the murder of his older brother, the former heir, and his failed quest to bring the killers to justice. He fears that Leia has met the same fate as his previous betrothed, who was abducted and murdered not long after their engagement. 

Luke has a mysterious vision of Leia surrounded by fire and rancors, which leads them to Dathomir, an isolated planet on the edge of Hapan space. Sadly, Luke has only just started investigating a tantalizing Force trail when a band of leather-clad women show up, demanding their unconditional surrender. When Luke hesitates, they use the Dark Side of the Force to attack. 

Luke does what he can to protect Isolder, but there are ten of them and only one of him. Once the leader - Gethzerion - snags his lightsaber, surrender seems like the best course of action. 

Luke braces himself for unpleasantness, but just as Gethzerion is gloating over her two captives, there's a howl in the distance--

\--and a rancor crashes through the undergrowth into the clearing, a triumphant Leia Organa perched on its back, exuding so much power and authority that Luke staggers under its weight. He's not the only one. Before Gethzerion can react, Luke's lightsaber flips out of her hand and into Leia's. 

The look of dismay on Gethzerion's face would be funny if the situation weren't so dire. "Who are you?" she shrieks, foaming flecks of spittle everywhere. "Who _dares_ \--" 

Leia doesn't bother to answer. She ignites the lightsaber, holding it over her head as a warning. She cries out, a single high note, and more women on rancors arrive, flanking her, until she's surrounded by hundreds of them. There's a hum of song and a push through the Force--

Thunder crashes as Gethzerion calls a lightning bolt down on her enemy, but Leia catches the blast on her lightsaber and throws it back at her. Gethzerion jerks back with a scream, her hands and face on fire, and Luke has enough presence of mind to use the Force to yank both Isolder and himself out of the way so they don't get caught in the crossfire-- 

The red-haired woman on the rancor next to Leia shouts, "Gethzerion, for your crimes, I judge you worthy of death!" She reaches out, grabs Leia's free hand--

And as the hum of song from the surrounding women rises to a pitched crescendo, Leia and the redhead bring the lightning down on the Nightsisters. When the smoke clears, the only thing left are the charred, smoking bodies, and it's all over. 

Isolder is staring at the redheaded woman next to Leia like she is a goddess descended from the heavens. If he wasn't smitten before, he is now. 

Leia cuts the lightsaber off, clips it to her belt, and carefully dismounts from her rancor. The redheaded woman is not far behind her. 

"Sister," the redhead says to her. "Which of these men do you claim for your own?" 

Leia looks over at Luke and Isolder's heads poking out of the shrubbery. "That one, Teneniel Djo," she says, pointing to Luke. "He is my brother, born of the same mother, come to my aid--" 

"Then the other is my husband by right and custom," says Teneniel before Leia can finish, thoroughly pleased with herself. 

Isolder is horrified and thrilled at the same time. " _What_ \--?" 

"Just go with it for now," Luke says in his ear. The last thing they needed was another fight, especially with so many Force users in the vicinity. "Leia and I will get you out if you need it. But given how much you've said you hated Hapan politics--" 

In a louder voice, Luke shouts to Leia, "We are grateful for your timely rescue, sister - and friends." 

***

"So," Luke said later, back to the Singing Mountain clan village, where Teneniel lived, "I see things worked out just fine after all." 

"Yes," Leia agreed. "The Queen Mother paid mercenaries to kidnap and murder me, and they drugged me and put me on their ship to kill me later. That was their mistake. I was able to break free and hide within the ship's storage unit, picking them off one by one, until I could reach the escape pod. They were making lots of hyperspace jumps to try to evade pursuit, so I had no idea where I was; I just steered for the nearest planet and hoped for the best. 

"Teneniel Djo and the women of Singing Mountain found me not long after I crashed here. They recognized my potential with the Force and inducted me into the clan. When rumors came that Nightsisters - those dark Force users you saw - were gathering, I convinced Singing Mountain and the surrounding clans to move against them, lest they become too powerful--" 

"And the rest, as they say, is history," Luke finished with a smile.

"I just didn't expect to find you and Isolder right in the middle of it!" 

"So, are you going to be marry Isolder?" 

Leia snorted. "Hardly. Teneniel may have claimed him as a husband and war-prize but the feeling appears to be, ah, mutual. Returning to Hapes is less appealing than it used to be after he learned his mother hired the men who tried to kill me. Apparently, she'd used the same band to murder his older brother and his previous betrothed as well." 

"Ah. So no political marriage for you, then." 

"As you pointed out when the Hapans first showed up, I don't need to marry Isolder to have an alliance with them." 

They sat together for a long time, lost in their own thoughts. 

"I don't need a man to be happy, Luke," she said at last. "I miss Han, but I don't _need_ him. I never did. Maybe that was one reason why I loved him so much - it was the one thing in my life that I did because I wanted to, not because it was necessary." 

"I think Dathomir has been good for you," Luke said. "You've grown so strong in the Force, in ways I could never have imagined. Now I have just as much to learn from _you_ as you do from me." 

"Yes," she said thoughtfully. "I have grown, haven't I? Han would have liked that, I think." 

"He always had a thing for strong women," Luke said. "And one _very strong_ woman in particular." 

She smiled. "Yes," she agreed. "I remember."


End file.
